My Name is Leon: Plot Summary (AQA GCSE English Literature): Revision Note

My Name is Leon: Plot Summary

An important step in preparing for your exam is to thoroughly understand the plot of My Name is Leon. Once you're familiar with the novel, you will feel confident connecting key events to broader themes. Having a deep understanding of the text will boost your confidence in finding relevant references to support your responses.

Below you will find:

• a general overview of the whole novel

• detailed summaries by chapter

Overview of My Name is Leon

My Name is Leon is a novel that follows nine-year-old Leon as he struggles to adapt to life as he enters the care system. The book looks at how the care system affects children who are thrown into it by tumultuous home lives, and examines how Leon attempts to find himself and his place in a world that seems to reject him. 

Set in 1980s Birmingham, the narrative gives the reader a look into the racial and social politics of the time, as members of Leon’s local community are targeted by the police.

Leon and his new baby brother, Jake, are taken away from their mum, Carol, after she has a mental breakdown and can no longer care for them. They are taken in by foster carer Maureen, who brings not only a warmth that Leon has lacked, but a comfort of living with full plates of food, regular treats, and new toys — all things that his birth mother could never afford.

Jake is quickly adopted, but Leon is left behind. After the boys are split up, the quiet and thoughtful Leon is left lost, adrift from all his family and struggling to find comfort. 

When Maureen falls ill, Leon is forced to move again, and Maureen’s sister Sylvia takes him in. A new bike and some new role models at the local allotments bring Leon hope, only for the ever-anxious young boy to plan an escape, collecting items he thinks he will need to plot a route to Jake, Carol, and the reuniting of the family unit that Leon still holds dear. 

My Name is Leon: Chapter-by-chapter plot summary

Chapter 1

• Leon is at the hospital:

  • His mother has just given birth to Leon’s new baby brother

• Leon goes home to stay the night with their neighbour Tina

• Tina’s partner questions Leon staying with her again, suggesting it happens regularly

Chapter 2

• Leon’s mum, Carol, comes home with the baby, Jake

• Leon starts missing school quite frequently as Carol keeps him home

• Tina begins popping round regularly:

  • She urges Carol to go to the doctor as she is struggling with the new baby

Chapter 3

• Leon starts to notice that his mother is struggling

• Jake, now four months old, and Leon have been staying at Tina’s often 

• Carol tells Tina that Jake’s father “forgot” her due date, but that he will be leaving his partner to live with Carol and her children

Chapter 4 

• Jake’s father, Tony, comes over and argues with Carol

• We find out that Tony is married, and he wants nothing to do with Carol and Jake

• Carol gets angry at Leon for listening:

  • In response, Leon steals money from her purse

• Carol is bed bound:

  • Leon is often looking after Jake, and missing school 

Chapter 5

• The summer holidays start and Leon notices there is no structure at home

• Leon is looking after Jake nearly every day:

  • He learns to change his nappy and what to do for breakfast

• Leon can no longer find money for food or nappies, leaving both boys hungry and Jake wearing towels instead of nappies

• Leon tries to get his mum’s help, but finds her asleep in her room, having wet the bed “again” 

• Leon doesn’t want anyone else to find out:

  • Last time his mother was like this he had to go into care temporarily

• Desperate for help, Leon goes to Tina to ask for a pound so he can buy some food:

  • Tina is worried and comes down to check on Carol

• Finding Carol in a state, a regretful Tina calls an ambulance and social services

• Carol is taken to hospital

• The next day, social workers arrive:

  • Leon nicknames one of them “Zebra” because of her black and white hair

• The social workers take the boys to a foster carer’s house

Chapter 6

• Leon wakes up at the carer’s:

  • She is called Maureen

• Leon gets to eat breakfast, which is as many bacon sandwiches as he can eat:

  • This cheers him up

• Maureen asks Leon for the rules to help look after Jake, which helps him to settle

Chapter 7

• Leon is comfortable at Maureen’s, but is struggling to sleep

• He goes to Maureen for a story, but ends up telling her about a time when he overheard Carol and his dad arguing:

  • Leon’s dad was angry finding out that Carol was pregnant with another man’s baby

  • Leon remembers how his dad spoke “fast West Indian” when angry

• He describes waking up the day after to find out that his dad had left

Chapter 8

• It’s Christmas

• Leon is angry because he hasn’t heard anything from or about his mum

• Leon is surprised by all the food in the house

• He tells Maureen he knows that Father Christmas isn’t real

• Leon is very anxious about the presents, but is shocked and delighted on Christmas morning to have many presents to open

Chapter 9

• Leon notices that the house is different:

  • He knows that this means the social workers are coming to visit

• They explain to Leon that Jake is going to be adopted by a new family, but Leon won’t be

• Later, Maureen explains what adoption is, and then tells him Jake will be adopted because he’s white

Chapter 10

• Leon thinks the social worker must have been mistaken as it gets to February and Jake is still with them

• Maureen collects him from school and explains to him that Jake is being adopted that day

• Leon gets anxious, Maureen cries, and then Leon asks if he is going with Jake, a question he has been too scared to ask:

  • Maureen tells him no

• Jake leaves with his new parents:

  • Leon trashes his room in a fury

• Maureen keeps the Big Red Bear that Jake got at Christmas, and leaves it next to a photo of Jake for Leon to have

Chapter 11

• Leon is grinding his teeth in his sleep and Maureen wakes him

• She tells him she has looked after many children and Leon will be all right

Chapter 12

• Salma, the social worker, visits and Maureen tells her she is concerned about Leon

• Leon has no friends:

  • He spends all his time alone

• Maureen gets angry about social services splitting the brothers up

• An angry Leon steals 50p from Salma’s purse and finds official papers about his mum:

  • They say that Carol has not attended visits she could have had with the children

  • They also detail that it is hard to assess her as she has mental health, drug and alcohol issues

  • Carol has told a carer about plans for the future, but they didn’t include her children

  • They conclude that she has a personality disorder that manifests as “high level of self-interest”

  • She would need 18 months of therapy before being considered as a carer for either of her children

• Leon is angry after reading this and dribbles on the papers

Chapter 13

• Leon wakes up to a quiet house:

  • Maureen is still asleep

• Maurenn has been sleeping later, blaming her chest

• They take the bus to visit Maureen’s sister Sylvia

• Leon is embarrassed to be seen with Maureen

• Maureen struggles with her breathing as she approaches the house and Sylvia is very concerned

• Leon goes outside, then overhears Maureen and Sylvia talking about him:

  • Maureen says there is “not a chance” he will get adopted

• Sylvia makes Maureen promise her she will visit a doctor

• The next day, Maureen is too sick to make breakfast

Chapter 14

• Carol comes to visit Leon at Maureen’s:

  • It has been nearly a year since Leon saw her

• She arrives with a man Leon doesn’t know

• She’s not quite how Leon remembers her, and seems unwell

• Carol is unable to focus and frail:

  • Her hands shaking constantly

• Carol tells Maureen she had postnatal depression, then cries about them taking Jake

• She collapses when she sees a photo of Jake

• Maureen tells Carol how hard things are for Leon

• Carol wants the photo of Jake:

  • Maureen says no

  • When she leaves, Leon gives it to her

Chapter 15

• Maureen wakes Leon at night desperate for help:

  • Leon has to call her an ambulance

• They go to hospital

• Sylvia comes, and thanks Leon for saving Maureen’s life

• Leon goes home with Sylvia and will be staying with her while Maureen is in hospital

Chapter 16

• Leon moves to Sylvia’s, and is not happy about it:

  • He changes school again

• The Zebra comes to visit and tells him that Carol is living in a halfway house in Bristol, so won’t be able to look after him

• She gives Leon a bike

Chapter 17

• Leon goes for a bike ride after school and bikes through a more multicultural neighbourhood

• Leon bikes to some allotments 

• He is impressed by a man named Mr Burrows, or Tufty, as he prefers to be called

• Tufty nicknames Leon “Star”

• Another man, Mr Devlin, tells Tufty that children aren’t allowed in the allotments, and that bikes are not to be ridden in the area

Chapter 18

• Leon lies about his allotment trip to Sylvia

• He returns to the allotment and spends time with Tufty:

  • He notices posters of Black men in his shed

• Leon also talks to Mr Devlin:

  • He is impressed by Mr Devlin’s Kanetsune knife

Chapter 19

• Leon is taken to visit Maureen in the hospital by the Zebra

• He cuddles Maureen:

  • However, he notices she smells, looks and feels different

• Leon is frustrated that all he hears is that he cannot see Jake and his mum isn’t well

• Leon starts to realise Maureen is old and worries about her dying

Chapter 20

• Leon meets Tufty’s friends at the allotment:

  • They remind Leon of his father

• The men play dominoes and discuss racial inequality

• One of the men, Castro, is angry and wants action:

  • He wants to force change

  • The others are more inclined to work within the system

• Tufty reads a poem he has written

Chapter 21

• Leon is not happy at his school:

  • Staff at the school are concerned 

• Sylvia comes to a school meeting

• Leon fantasises about using a TV remote to turn off Sylvia, his teachers and the headteacher:

  • He hopes that they “never come on again”

Chapter 22

• Sylvia and her friends are planning a street party for the wedding of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer

• That night, they are disrupted watching the news because there is a riot on a street near them

• With Sylvia distracted, Leon steals some coins from her purse

Chapter 23

• Leon goes to the corner shop to get some sweets:

  • It is boarded up from the riot

  • The owner, a Pakistani man, asks Leon, “why are you doing this?” 

• Leon doesn’t understand his inference:

  • Leon just says that he “didn’t” 

• At the allotment, Leon helps Mr Devlin plant some seeds

• He notices that Mr Devlin smells of alcohol and looks older than usual

Chapter 24

• Leon and Sylvia go to the Family Centre to visit Carol

• The Zebra tells Leon that Sylvia notices Leon stealing money and lying to her

• Leon gets to see Carol, but notices she is glassy-eyed, has lost a lot of weight and appears to have been crying for days:

  • Leon remarks that it’s like she has “never been happy in her whole life” 

• Leon and Carol laugh a lot after she calls the Zebra a badger

• They talk about Jake and Carol gets sad:

  • Leon feels he needs to cheer her up and mimics Jake

  • He then tells Carol that he could be Jake sometimes if she comes back to see him

Chapter 25

• Leon is unwell and has a fever at night:

  • He asks Sylvia for a story, and she tells him a longwinded joke, which he misinterprets as a trick

• He wakes up again and tries to make himself feel better by thinking of nice memories of his mum

Chapter 26

• Still sick, but on the mend, Leon bikes to the allotments

• He goes into an abandoned shed and then feels like he can hear Jake

• He gets dizzy and faints

• Mr Devlin wakes him, and Leon sees things in Mr Devlin’s shed — knives, an old pistol, photographs of young boys — that fascinate him

Chapter 27

• Leon is off school as he is sick:

  • He finds himself frustrated with Sylvia as she plans a Royal Wedding party

• Leon goes to the allotments and witnesses a group of plain-clothed policemen confront, insult and assault Castro:

  • The policemen then purposefully damage Tufty’s allotment

Chapter 28

• An Independent Reviewing Officer from social services visits

• The man explains that Jake has been adopted:

  • All the toys from the old house have gone as Carol has moved out

• Leon gets angry as the man explains that Jake has gone and that Leon cannot live with him

• Leon fantasises about stabbing him through the eye:

  • Eventually, he finds himself too upset to sit and talk

• Leon wets himself, then trashes the bathroom:

  • He leaves and then trashes his bedroom

• Sylvia finds all the mess and is angry with him:

  • She makes him clear it all up, but does tell him that she likes him and that Maureen loves him

Chapter 29

• Mr Devlin and Tufty get into an argument

• While they argue, Leon steals the pistol from Mr Devlin’s shed

• Tufty accuses Mr Devlin of inappropriate feelings towards young boys:

  • He tells Leon to stay away from Mr Devlin

Chapter 30

• It is Leon’s 10th birthday:

  • He is very happy to receive Star Wars toys

• He also gets a photo of Jake with his address on the back, and a typed letter from him

• When he visits the allotment, Mr Devlin gives him a quarter of a plot to have as his own, and some old tools to use

Chapter 31

• Leon goes to the allotments and remembers the first and only time he met his grandmother, his dad’s mum

• He goes into Mr Devlin’s shed:

  • He sees Mr Devlin asleep and tries to touch his knives

  • Mr Devlin catches him

• Mr Devlin shows Leon how to whittle, and shows him photos of kids he used to look after in Brazil:

  • One is named Gabriel who it sounds like may have been his son

• Leon goes to his secret shed but finds Castro in there:

  • Castro is angry and sends Leon to steal whiskey from Mr Devlin

• Leon runs away from him but runs into Tufty:

  • He takes Leon back to the shed

  • Though scared, Leon eventually reveals that Castro is in there

• Castro tells Tufty that he was beaten by the police when they saw him going to see a solicitor

Chapter 32

• Leon talks about how worried Sylvia was when he came back late from the allotment after seeing Castro and Tufty

• At the supermarket, Leon overhears Sylvia talking to someone about how unwell Maureen has been:

  • She may come live with Sylvia

• Leon steals baby food for his plan to reunite with Jake:

  • He makes a mental list of what else he needs to steal to prepare

Chapter 33

• Tufty reads Leon a poem he has written about Castro:

  • It talks about how racism has changed people like him

• At home, while thinking of Tufty’s poem, Leon finds that Tufty reminds him of his father:

  • Leon recalls the last time he saw his father

  • It was Christmas Eve, and his dad argued with Carol before telling her he had his court date and might not be back

  • He dropped off some gifts for Leon

• Leon understands that going to the Crown Court means he won’t see his father for a long time and he was upset by that thought

Chapter 34

• Sylvia and Leon clean the house:

  • They are preparing for Maureen to come out of hospital

• Sylvia comes home sad after being stood up by her date:

  • Leon consoles her

Chapter 35

• Leon prepares to take his rucksack to Maureen’s:

  • He intends to hide the items he has collected for his journey to find Jake and his mum

• Maureen comes home and is excited to see Leon

• Leon pretends to go to the bathroom:

  • Instead, he stands in the hallway to listen to Maureen and Sylvia’s conversation

  • They talk about moving away and getting a dog

  • Leon gets very upset

• He overhears Maureen telling Sylvia that she will soon have something permanent and that she hasn’t told him yet:

  • Leon starts to get angry about them wanting a dog instead of him

• They are all then distracted as the news shows a riot happening in their area after a man died in custody

Chapter 36

• Leon climbs out of his window at Sylvia’s house and goes out into the night

• Leon runs to the allotment crying:

  • He dodges the people in the street who are angrily protesting

• He goes to the allotment to drop some of the items from his rucksack

• Sneaking into the abandoned shed, Leon sees Tufty and Mr Devlin arguing

• We find out that Castro was the man killed in police custody

Chapter 37

• Tufty and Mr Devlin catch Leon hiding in the abandoned shed:

  • Leon’s rucksack bursts open when they come in and things fall out, including the baby doll Mr Devlin had whittled of his son

• Mr Devlin gets very upset, and Tufty tells Leon to apologise:

  • Instead, Leon has an outburst

  • Leon shouts about how no one cares about him, nor his brother

  • He says that he deserves to be treated better and to be cared for

• They try to talk him down, but Leon threatens them both with the knife he took

• The two men continue to try and calm Leon:

  • They show him that they are clearly very worried for him

  • Leon explains his plan to find Jake

• Leon escapes from the shed and then gets away from the allotments as Tufty and Mr Devlin try to find him

Chapter 38

• Searching for Jake, Leon gets caught up in the riots

• Caught in the middle of the protestors and the police, Leon pulls the pistol from his bag and holds it up to the police, scaring both sides 

• As people start to approach him, Leon hears Tufty’s voice

Chapter 39

• Mr Devlin appears:

  • He assures people that it is a wooden gun

• He goes to grab Leon, but gets hit on the head by something like a bottle or brick

• Tufty helps Mr Devlin and Leon run away:

  • Tufty and Leon drag a wounded and dizzy Mr Devlin with them

• Tufty is knocked to the ground and racially abused by a policeman:

  • When Leon tries to stop him, the policeman raises his truncheon to attack Leon, and also racially abuses him

  • He only stops when Leon recites some of Tufty’s poem to him

• Leon then hands him his helmet and asks for help:

  • However, the policeman tells him to take Tufty home before returning to the riot

• Both Tufty and Mr Devlin are bleeding from head wounds as they gather themselves

• Leon realises they are near Sylvia’s and takes them there

Chapter 40

• Maureen and Sylvia are awake and in a panic about Leon being missing

• They care for the injuries of both Mr Devlin and Tufty

• Maureen berates Leon for running away:

  • Tufty nudges Leon to apologise

• Leon goes to bed with a memory of hearing the adults all talking and laughing

Chapter 41

• Maureen and Leon travel to Bristol together to go see Carol

• Carol tells Leon she isn’t capable of looking after him

• Leon tries to convince her she can live with him and Maureen:

  • Carol finds that insulting

• When Maureen comes over, Carol explains she has told him “what we agreed”:

  • She tells Leon that he can’t run away, can’t live with her, but can come to see him sometimes

• After she leaves, Leon chases her and gives her a big hug:

  • He asks if she still loves Jake, and she tells him she still loves both of them

• On the way home, Maureen tells Leon he is going to live with her long-term:

  • She tells him a story to explain to him that his life is hard now, but won’t always be

Chapter 42

• On the day of the Royal Wedding, Mr Devlin comes round early to help out:

  • It is clear that he and Sylvia are dating

• Leon plants some seeds

• The narrative ends with Leon running to Maureen to help her with a task

Sources

De Waal, K. (2016), My Name is Leon, Viking